Easter Events

Here are some photos from some fun Easter events:

A farm out in Williston hosted a big Easter egg hunt for the community. The farm owns one of the last steam locomotive engines & they gave train rides around the farm during the event. Cameron & Olivia didn't want to do the egg hunt (there were too many people) but enjoyed the train ride, animals & bounce houses.

Cute little baby chicks :)

Olivia's class Easter party

Hunting for eggs with her class

Both my sisters & their families came for a long visit the week before Easter. The kids all enjoyed playing together, especially box sledding and playing at Grandy & Popeyes.

MOPS Easter party & egg hunt. Always a fun time.

Me & the kids & my nephew Reid

I watched my sisters two youngest boys, Davis & Reid, so that she & Phil could take the two oldest to Disney. Olivia and Reid had a great time playing together & I really enjoyed watching Davis. Both boys did really well!

Easter Weekend

We had a busy but fun Easter weekend. We started off on Saturday with an Easter party for the kids at my grandmothers retirement community. They had lots of fun activities for the kids, egg coloring & decorating, creating your own Easter bag, face painting (which my kids never like to do) and of course an egg hunt. It was nice that Heather's children were in town & able to attend also.

Showing off their colored eggs

After the Easter party the women of my family left to go to Becky's baby shower. Heather & I hosted a small shower for her with our family while she was in town. We held it at a cute little local restaurant, the Ivy House. We are all so excited for Becky & the sweet baby girl she is expecting. It was so nice to be able to celebrate her upcoming arrival as she has celebrated with Heather & I so many times :) 

We can't wait to meet you baby girl Ginty!

Of course all parties include the famous Betty cake!

I hadn't planned on bringing Olivia but when I told her she wasn't going she was so upset that I changed my mind & let her come. She really behaved well & loved helping Becky with the presents :)

After the shower we all went back to my parents house for an early Easter dinner since we had family from Jacksonville visiting for the day. 

This is a cute photo of my cousin Dawn's son Oliver who was trying to give Olivia a kiss. Adorable! 

Lining up to start the egg hunt!

Lots of eggs in the sandbox, lol

She found a caterpillar 

Goodies from the Easter bunny

At the Easter sunrise service :) Happy Easter!

Spring Break 2014

We had lots of fun activities planned for the week of Spring Break. We started off the weekend with a short camping trip to Lake Waldena which is a little campground out in the Ocala National Forest. While we were camping we went kayaking down Juniper Run which ended up being a lot of fun. I was a little nervous taking the kids down Juniper because it is a really long trip with no place to take a break or swim because of the alligators. But the kids did great & with Charles' kayaking skills we were able to finish in 3 hours instead of the normal 4 to 5. 

Swimming in the lake at the campground

Kayaking around the lake

Tuesday during spring break I took the kids to the Butterfly Rainforest in Gainesville. It's at the Florida Museum of Natural History. We enjoyed watching the butterflies, one even landed on Cameron which he thought was so neat, and walking around looking at the exhibits.

Butterfly on Cameron's hand

Pottery painting with friends. I wasn't sure how the kids would like it but they really did enjoy it & asked to go back again. Cameron's rainbow horse turned out really nice!

Wednesday we took a trip to one of their favorite places, Uncle Donald's Farm. The kids love seeing all the farm animals & being able to feed them.

Such a beautiful peacock!

Of course we did lots of box sledding :)

And animal catching

We also were able to enjoy a short visit from Charles' college friend, Rob Harter, & his family who stayed the weekend with us while in town for a dog competition.

Cameron & Olivia with Jake & Katie two of their children.

The week after spring break we took a four day trip to the cabin. We took both dogs & this was KitKats first trip. I soon learned that this would be her last trip as with both dogs together they decided to roam around the woods. Mickey would come right back when called but not with KitKat. We had to drive up the mountain & get her one time!

Charles barricaded both dogs in the back of my vehicle for the drive but about halfway through the trip I hear Mickey making noise & look back to see he was able to get through the barricade & over the seat & was laying like this on Cameron's seat & the cooler. Too funny!

Charles bought Cameron a BB gun while we were there & they had fun shooting at a water can target in the woods.

Cameron wanted to do some work in the woods & look for trash. We went on a hike & didn't find much except for a lot of flagging tape, lol

Charles loves to cook over the fire. We sure do eat some delicious meals at the cabin!